Routing-board.



No. 780,796. PATENTED JAN. 24, 1905; A. HINBS & R. B. FORNEY.

ROUTING BOARD.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 20. 1904.

' Summon RBJZ'ORNE Y Mm UNITED- STATES ALONZO HINES AND RALPH B. FORHEY,OF NEW PHILADELPHIA, OHIO.

Patented January 24;, 1905.

PATENT OFFICE.

ROUTING-BOARD.

SPE(ZIFIOATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 780,796, dated January24, 1905. Application filed il'nly 20, 1904:. Serial No. 217,431.

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that we, .ALoNZo HINEs and RALPH B. FORNEY, citizens of theUnited States, residing at New Philadelphia, in the county of Tuscarawasand State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inRouting-Boards; and we 'do hereby declare thefollowing to be a full,clear, and exactdescription of the invention, such as will enable othersskilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

Ourfinvention relates to what is commonly designated a routing-board ora rack for facilitating the assortment of mail-matter; and our inventionconsists of certain novel features of construction and combination ofparts, the preferred form whereof will be hereinafter clearly set forth,and pointed out in the claim. The main object of our invention, amongothers, is to provide a convenient form of routing-board wherebymail-matter may be readily classified for the individuals living uponthe mail-route, and thus prevent the mail-carrier from making a mistakewhile delivering the mail to the parties for whom it is intended.

Other objects and advantages will be hereinafter made clearly apparent,reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which are made a partof this application, and in which- Figure 1 shows a perspective view ofour invention complete ready for use. Fig. 2 is a detail sectional viewof the name-carrying roller and protecting-shield therefor, while Fig. 8is a perspective detail view showing one of the many ways of mountingthe end of the name-carrying roller. I

In carrying out our invention it may be stated that we provide a plateor body portion having upon one edge a movable-member,

preferably a roller, upon which may be printed or pasted the names ofparties living upon certain mail-routes or upon streets, said plate alsohaving devices to hold the letters andother mail-matter in a separatedor classified position, all of which will be designated specifically byreference-numerals, the same nu.-

meral referring to a similar the several views.

Referring in detail to the varlous parts of part throughout ourinvention and cooperating accessories, 1 designates the body portion orrouting-board proper, upon the forward edge of which we provide suitableextensions or brackets 2, and upon said brackets we rotatably mount thejournals 3 provided for each end of the namecarrying roller 4, saidjournal being held in The shield or guard section tion 1, preferably atits upper edge, as desig- I nated by the numeral 8, whereby the loweredge of the shield may be readily thrown up to provide easy access tothe namecarrying roller. We also provide in one end of the shield orguard a transversely-disposed slotted opening 9, through which theperipheral milled edge of the controlling-wheel 10 extends, saidcontrolling-wheel being attached to one end of the name-carrying roller4:, whereby said roller may be readily controlled, as by the finger orthumb of the operator.

Upon the rear edge. of the body portion or routing-board 1 we provideaplurality of mailseparating devices, consisting in this instance of aseries of staple-like members 11, placed any suitable distance apart,and said members are for the purpose of receiving between them suchmail-matter as may belong to some specilied individual whose name isupon the opposite part of the name-carrying roller 4:. We also providefor the rear edge of our routingboard an extension,which in thisinstance consists of a bracket 12, formed of a suitable piece of wire,the ends of which are bent at right angles and are secured to the endsof the routing-board in any preferred way, as by enteringa portion ofsaid extensions into holes provided to receive them, said extensionsbeing additionally secured and held in place by r Ioo of providing aseat for the large number of names, and said names represent the peopleliving upon certain speclfied routes which 1ndicate the territorycovered by the mail-carr1er.

Inasmuch as the general description above presented will render the useof our invention readily comprehensible, it is deemed unnecessary todwell further upon the manner of using our appliance, though it may bestated that there may be a plurality of rows of names, each rowrepresenting the names of persons living upon one of the mail routes orsection of the mail-route covered by the carrier. We will suppose thatthe first name upon the end of the roller which will be found directlyopposite the first pair of staples 11 is that of John Smith, andtherefore all mailmatter intended for him will be placed in the firsttwo staples. We have indicated by dotted lines 14 that the correspondingspace on the roller 24 is to be occupied by the name of an individual,so that the carrier will not be confused, as might be the case if saidnames overlap said space. It therefore becomes an easy matter for thecarrier to prepare his bundle of mail-matter in proper form before hestarts upon the Work of delivering such matter to the owners. The workof the carrier, therefore, preliminary to starting out upon his routewill be to take up the mass of mail-matter placed upon the table infront of the routing-board or other convenient point and intended for acertain specified route or c a section of a route, when he will turn thename-carrying roller so as to bring the names of the persons on saidroute into view and dispose each letter or paper between the properracks or staples, which staples will be, as above stated, directlyopposite the name of the addressee.

The various parts of our invention may be cheaply manufactured of anypreferred material and any desired size, and while wehave described thepreferred combination and construction of parts we desire to comprehendin this application all substantial equivalents and substitutes fairlyfalling within the scope of our invention.

Having thus fully described our invention, what we claim as new, anddesire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The herein-described classification or renting board for mail-carrierscomprising the body portion proper or plate 1; a plurality ofmail-separating devices upon its edge and an extending bracket alsocarried by said edge; a name-carrying roller suitably mounted in theforward edge of said plate or body portion; a shield or cover fittingover said roller and having a longitudinal slotted opening; acontrolling-wheel for said roller protruding through an opening in saidshield whereby the roller may be rotated in either direction, allcombined substantially as specified and for the purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof we have signed our names to this specification inthe presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ALONZO HINES. RALPH B. FORNEY. Witnesses:

P. S. OLMS'IEAD, JOHN B. RosER.

